Kang Kyung-Koo Korea, b. 1952

Vitality, offensive dynamism and unstoppable, spontaneous growth of the plant-like, organic bodies of the nature dominate the visual universe of the sophisticated oeuvre of Kang Kyung-Koo.

It’s not the sensual richness or virtuosity of the mimetic representation of trees and flowers, shady groves and dark forests, impenetrable jungles with strange animals and hiding or lost human beings, but the capacity of revealing the enigmatic power of the self-organizing vegetative arrangement, which makes so suggestive and irresistible these drawings.

Everything seems to be involved in a general, fundamental fluidity, which appears as the state of natural phenomenon, in which uncountable small stories and anecdotes are mixing with the permanent transfiguration of all participating elements. Light and shadow, illuminated spots and mysterious darkness, transparency and obscurity open the roads towards the realm of unlimited imagination and free association, through which these forests and groves will be understood as visual metaphors of entering into the great Unknown.

The perception of these drawing suggests a discovery of a terra incognita, it forecasts unexpected dangerous experiences, it foreshadows conflicts and struggles, it indicates surprises and uncertainties.

The old metaphor of the large, dark forest as the terrain of the unknown destiny of man, as the empire of the impenetrability of the secret of life, as the realm of doubt and self-questioning, is appearing in Kang Kyung-Koo’s oeuvre with eloquent visual evidence and gorgeous radiance.